Roger Furman

Roger Furman (March 22, 1924 – November 27, 1983) was an African American actor, director, playwright, and producer. He is known for founding the New Heritage Repertory Theater, the oldest active theater company in Harlem, New York City, and taught drama at several universities.

Early life

Roger Furman was born on March 22, 1924.^[1]^[2] His mother was Mary Furman.^[3]

Career

Furman's career began in Harlem in the 1940s, when he worked as an actor with the American Negro Theater.^[3]

He was the founder and former owner of New Heritage Repertory Theater, the oldest active theater company in Harlem, which was financed by the federal government as part of the Harlem anti-poverty program. The group produced over 35 plays under Furman's leadership.^[3]

He was also a founder of the Black Theatre Alliance, which was an organization of theatre groups.^[3]

Some of his plays were staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.^[4]^[5]

He worked in various roles on movies, including set designer for The Cool World (1963), actor in Maya Angelou's Georgia, Georgia (1972), casting assistant for Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), and assistant director (to Ossie Davis) in Cotton Comes to Harlem.^[3]

In 1972, Furman directed the WPA Theater Company's production of The Threepenny Opera, starring Geraldine Fitzgerald.^[3]

He taught courses of black drama at New York University, Rutgers, and Hartford University.^[3]

Publications

Furman co-authored The Black Book, "an encyclopedic look at the black experience in America from 1619 through the 1940s", which has been published in several editions.^[6]

Death and legacy

Furman died on November 27, 1983, at his home in Upper Manhattan, aged 59.^[3]

The Roger Furman Theatre (at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) is named for him.^[7]

References

^ "Roger Furman Biography". IMDb.
^ Rivers, Voza (January 1, 2006). Forever Harlem: Celebrating America's Most Diverse Community. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 261. ISBN 9781596702066 – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "In Harlem theater 4 decades". The New York Times. December 1, 1983.
^ Miller, Hillary (October 15, 2016). Drop Dead: Performance in Crisis, 1970s New York. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810133907 – via Google Books.
^ Gussow, Mel (November 17, 1973). "Theater: Black Portrait". The New York Times.
^ Harris, M. A.; Levitt, Morris; Furman, Roger; Smith, Ernest (January 1, 2009). The Black Book. Random House. ISBN 9781400068487 – via Google Books.
^ Heyliger, Yvette (October 25, 2016). Autobiography of a Homegirl: Deep Somewhere in the Toy Box where All My Dolls are Kept. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595205561 – via Google Books.